The 7th Child

Chapter 1: The Beginning

September 2001

Devastation. Tragedy. Loss. Unimaginable pain and suffering and yet, no one felt it yet. Everyone was in shock, too horrified to feel the grief that was washing over their bodies. Then the second plane hit. The shockwave of the explosion, the collapse of the buildings, finally snapped some of them out of their trance, their deepest instincts taking over as they ran for their life. The rest were still frozen, praying that what they saw wasn't real. Praying that it was just a bad dream. But this wasn't just a bad dream, it was America's worst nightmare. Jennifer Artorian falls to her knees in the hospital surrounded by her workmates, holding her stomach like she was gonna vomit. The words of the news reporter echoed in her head as she continued watching, hoping it was just her being tired, seeing things wrong. She sat there waiting for the screen to change, waiting for a change that would never come. Tears filled her eyes to the point where even if she wiped them away, they still blurred her vision rendering the screen a fuzzy smeared mess. She couldn't think straight, putting her fingers through hair in distress. There were around 19,000 casualties that day, and one of them was her husband. Elijah, her last family, the love of her life. Gone in an hour. All for a new job. She was just bragging to her friends at work about her husband, them all celebrating his achievement of getting a Job in the new World Trade Center. She was on the phone with him yesterday. He was so happy, so loving, so supportive. His voice comforted her in a way it never would again. The teal blue knees of her hospital scrubs turned to a pale brown as she sat on the floor. She held her hand over her mouth, and her eyes shut trying to block out the news, and the supporting voices of her friends that lowered down to her trying to console her. Her brain refused it all. It refused to process any more information, anything else that could potentially add to her pain. It was as if she had completely shut down. Her curly black hair stuck to her face, smeared onto her soggy brown cheek as she tried to rub her eyes. Her friends helped her up and brought her to the main office, asking their boss for her to be able to take the rest of the day off. Her boss understood, and one friend, Lora, offered to take her to pick her son, Legai, up from Daycare.

"Thank you, Lora." Jennifer says weakly, her emotions being too drained to sound anymore genuine. "Just relax Jenn. We'll be at your place soon." She says, scared to look at Jennifer, preferring to just leave her to her side of the car. Jennifer looks out the window, the low humming of the car's engine acting as a net holding them inches away from utter silence. They didn't dare turn on the car's radio, no doubt news about... what happened... would be everywhere. Jennifer just wanted to sit and think. How was she going to tell Legai about it? Could she? Learning the news herself felt like it almost killed her, but telling a 1 year old boy... How could he recover from that? But how much worse would it be if she didn't tell him? How much pressure would it be on her to lie to him constantly? Lora's SUV pulled into the driveway of the Daycare, the sound of the children playing alleviating some of the otherwise thick atmosphere. Legai saw Lora step out of the car with Jennifer, and ran to the old wooden gate that seperated the Daycare from the driveway. The teacher- Mr. Ridge -saw Jennifer too, and he rose from watching the news on his laptop, grabbing Legai's backpack and walking over to them in silence. Legai's pure and genuine joy bubbled out as he excitingly exclaimed, "Mommy! Mommy!! Look at what I did!!!" He said, rushing towards her. Jennifer was exhausted, and elected Lora instead, "This is Ms. Lora bubba, she's a friend. Show her what you did while I get your things." She insisted. Legai shrugged, and brought Lora to a pile of dirt with an action figure on top, "It's my dirt castle! With daddy as King of the worms!!" He points to the man standing slanted atop the dirt mound.

"Wow!" Lora affirms Legai with an encouraging smile, "How long did this take you?" "Not long. But it was hard because her kept kicking it over!!" Legai wined, pointing to another girl from his class that was on the swings. "Did not!" She protested, rocking back and forth. "Did too!" "Did not!" "Did too!!". As they began to argue and Lora tried to keep them peaceful, the teacher handed Legai's bookbag to Jennifer, "Mrs. Artorian... I'm so sorry for your loss." His eyebrows raised, bracing himself for whatever response she had. He was always well aquainted with both Jennifer and Elijah, to the point that he knew Elijah was there... he knew he was gone. "Does Legai know?" Jennifer's frail, horse voice asked. Mr. Ridge shook his head, putting his hand on the side of her shoulder, "I figured that was a conversation best left to you." He said, the right corner of his mouth lifting into a reassuring grin as he walked past Jennifer over to her friend. Jennifer's eyes flickered as his words prevoked the thought back into her mind. 'Maybe,' She thought, 'Maybe I should tell him. It's only fair, he deserves to know.' Even the voice inside her head was struck with dispair in each word. She turned to see him, smiling and playing, not having a care in the world. Not knowing how much pain he would be in. Jennifer finally got Legai to get into the car and leaned back into her chair. Legai's feet swung back in forth in his seat, "Can we please listen to music pretty please mommy?" He asks. Lora answers for her, "Your mom is a little tired sweety. We're gonna let her rest." She looks at Legai through the rearview mirror. Legai was upset, because they always listened to music on the way home, 'We don't even know you' He thinks to himself, pouting.